Meetings without minutes, disappearing without a trace from the French government's hard drives: That's why it's impossible to tell the story of how French-based companies producing "forever chemicals," and the lobbying groups defending their interests, have tried to influence the position of government agencies and political decision-makers on the issue of per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS).

At the end of summer 2023, Le Monde filed a freedom of information request with the Ministry of Finance and the Economy. The request concerns exchanges between the ministry's departments, representatives of PFAS manufacturers such as Arkema and Daikin and the organizations France Chimie and Plastics Europe. As part of the Forever Lobbying Project international investigation, in collaboration with Corporate Europe Observatory, a Brussels-based lobby watchdog organization, Le Monde and its partners are seeking to identify the footprints left outside the public sphere by economic players mobilized to fight against the European proposal to ban PFAS published a few months earlier.

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